Release

"-- a charm to counteract this ... curse, to nullify it until a cure can be found." He glanced at her as she entered the room. "Lavender," he said suddenly, turning on his heel and pacing back and forth in front of a pair of desks, "lavender promotes happiness, peace, protection ... love. Rowan has healing properties. Jasmine encourages prophetic dreams. Adder's tongue: healing, carnation: strength, wood rose: luck -- it ... it's all here --" He gestured toward the laptop. "-- there has to be something ..." He leaned on the desk, standing behind the chair like he was so fond of doing when she was sitting.

Alex walked over and sat on the edge of the desk across from where he was working. Silently, she handed him his coffee. He took it from her, took a drink and set it aside before her presence registered. He looked up at her, then at the coffee, then back at her. Without a word, he asked if she was all right, if they were all right, and she replied in kind, with just a small smile. The shy grin he gave her was far from perfect; pain and sorrow still shadowed his eyes, deepening the little lines on his face, but it was a start.

"Actually, Detective Goren," Munch said from across the room, "charms and talismans won't do much good against a curse as severe as yours. They're intended to relieve toothaches and migraines, clear up warts and acne, things like that."

"And you know this ... how?" Bobby asked, cocking his head to the side and peering at Munch over his shoulder.

"While you were--" He glanced at Alex. "-- indisposed, I was busy following up a lead. That contact I went to meet turned out to be the real deal."

"A witch?" Alex asked. He nodded. "Did you rule her out as a suspect?" Alex reached over and closed her laptop. Bobby picked up his coffee cup and she slid the computer to one side. He sat down on the edge of the desk, one foot crossed behind the other to keep them out of the way.

"I didn't have time to investigate thoroughly," Munch said with a dry smile, "but, no, she didn't curse your partner. As she explained it to me, this is a very old, very powerful magick, almost never used because of the price it exacts on the person casting it."

"Which is?" Alex prompted.

"Losing the ability to feel love, lust or passion for the rest of their life." No one spoke as they considered the ramifications. It was Sledge who broke the silence.

“How could you hate someone so much?” he wondered out loud. Out of the corner of her eye, Alex watched Bobby give him a long, contemplative look.

“This ... witch,” Stabler said, staring at the floor and scratching his temple like he couldn’t believe what he was saying, “did she say how difficult the spell is? How many years of witch school you need?”

“I was wondering when the sarcasm would show up,” Munch said, arching one eyebrow. “She said the spell itself wasn’t hard; practically anyone could do it, even someone who has never shown any magickal propensity before, as long as they believed that it would work and were willing to pay the price.”

“So it could be anybody,” Fin said, slouching against the wall.

“No,” Alex said softly, “this was a personal attack. This was someone who’d do anything for revenge, someone who knew just how to hurt him.” Us, she added silently, she hurt us.

“It’s Nicole,” Bobby said, resting his knuckles against his chin as he stared down at the floor. “She was very good at finding things, learning things. And she wouldn’t hesitate to do this, to give up love ... passion ... for revenge. She murdered her own daughter, after all.”

“Detectives, Nicole Wallace is dead,” Stabler said, a little loudly, in her opinion. “No one has found a trace of her, not the Feds, not Interpol, no one, since she died.” Bobby stood up and sidled toward Stabler. Alex quietly set her coffee down, but otherwise didn’t move. Perhaps she was being over-protective, perhaps Stabler wasn’t an angry person, perhaps this wouldn’t turn into an inter-departmental cockfight. Yeah, and perhaps Nicole Wallace really was dead.

“You never met her, Detective Stabler,” Bobby said, too deep in his own complex reasoning to notice that he was too close for Stabler’s comfort. The shorter man took his hands out of his pockets and balled them into loose fists. “Nicole may very well be dead, but that just means that she’s claimed another victim, just like Elizabeth Hitchins ... killed and her identity stolen. It’s what she does; she’s a ... killer.”

“Where’s your proof?” Stabler asked. “Where’s the evidence? All you got is a hunch, a baseless theory. Maybe that’s how you work over at Major Case, but here we investigate the facts, so let’s stop chasing ghosts and come up with some living suspects.” He glanced at Munch. “A ghost couldn’t do this, right?” Munch gave him a ‘What are you asking me for?’ look.

“Come on, you two,” Olivia said, stepping between the two men and placing a hand in the middle of each’s chest. Stabler didn’t seem to notice, but Bobby looked down at her hand as if he’d never seen anything quite like it. Alex stood up and took a step toward them. If the incubus was waking up already ... but no, it was just Bobby being ... Bobby.

“Detective Munch,” Alex said pointedly, “this witch you spoke to, she didn’t happen to mention a cure, did she?” Stabler glared up at Bobby for another moment, then turned away. Bobby ambled back over to sit beside her, his walk somewhere between dancing and stumbling. She knew he wasn’t as clumsy as he sometimes looked, but she often forgot just how graceful he could be.

“Not specifically, no,” Munch said, drawing her attention away from her partner. She’d have to thank him later. Had she stared for much longer, Bobby would have noticed, and God only knew what he might have inferred from it. “She and her coven are going to look into it and call me if they find anything.”

“How’d you get ‘em to do that?” Fin asked, frowning at his partner.

“I cast a spell on her with my honeyed words and devilish charm,” he replied with a smug smile.

“So, what do we do in the meantime?” Olivia asked.

“What do you think we do?” Stabler said. “We’re the cops; we go get the bad guy.”